Protests over the gang rape of a young woman on Dec. 16 appear to have fizzled after weekend clashes between thousands of demonstrators and police that left 85 people injured.

On Thursday, protesters who took to the streets of downtown Delhi numbered only a couple of hundreds. On Friday, the size of the security contingent on the streets of the capital had noticeably dwindled.

Some protesters Thursday vowed to continue demonstrating for better policing and tougher penalties for rapists. Others claimed police had reacted to peaceful protests at the weekend with disproportionate force, firing tear gas and water cannons.

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“The way the Delhi government and the police have reacted, it has no regard for our freedom, for our rights,” said Barun Adhikary, a doctoral student from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

On Thursday, there was no violence as police and protesters remained restrained.

Delhi’s local government has slammed the police for over-reacting to the protests at the weekend and has suspended two police officers. Attempts to reach the Delhi police Friday were not successful. Senior police officers have blamed elements of the crowd for sparking violence on Saturday and Sunday.

The rape victim, a physiotherapy student who has not been named, was flown Wednesday to Singapore for treatment. Doctors attending to her there say her health remains “extremely critical.” Six men have been arrested for allegedly raping the woman for over an hour on a moving chartered bus before dumping her and a male companion on a Delhi highway.

Saptarishi Dutta/The Wall Street Journal

Many young women and men took part in the protest, New Delhi, Thursday.

The protest march Thursday started from Nizamuddin in central Delhi, and was supposed to go until India Gate, home to government offices and the nation’s Parliament. But police blocked the protest from reaching its target, causing major traffic bottlenecks.

The crowd comprised mainly college students, teachers and activists. Many were shouting slogans and singing songs expressing dissatisfaction with the condition of women in the country.

The demonstrators demanded safe public spaces for women and speeding up the proceedings of pending rape cases, which they say number around 100,000. Additionally, they also want the government to convene a special session of Parliament to formulate new laws to protect women.

The government has promised action. It has appointed a commission, headed by a retired judge, to investigate the case and look for any failure of the police or other authorities in failing to stop rapes. Authorities also have pledged to look at changing laws to bring in harsher sentences for convicted rapists.

But critics say there’s a lack of political will to implement laws to safeguard the interests of women.

“Women are always treated as second-class citizens,” said Annie Raja, general secretary of the National Commission of Indian Women, an organization working for women’s welfare, who was taking part in Thursday’s protest.

Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who was arrested earlier this year on charges of sedition for cartoons that poked fun at the government, also joined the protest. He criticized the police for their response to the protests. (Police later dropped charges against Mr. Trivedi and released him from jail.)

“There should not be any space for violence in a democracy,” he said. “When people are trying to say something, why aren’t they listening?” he added.

Binalakshmi Nepram, an activist campaigning for female rights, said: “They need to show real concern to the people which they are not showing at the moment.”

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